I take the gelatin+water -> 10 minutes to jellyfy (gelatin absorb water and i get a sort of light brown transparent mass)

I take sugar+corn syrup+water-> in a pan on the fire, turn with a spoon till the sugar dropped in water makes hard balls

Mixer pan: i put in bloomed gelatin and hot solution and mix. Add salt and vanilla... BUT it doesn't fluff; the same consistence was the liquid in the pan on fire, the same remains here, like gelatin isn't doing his job... te solution has the same consistence of corn syrup...

Where could be the error ? i'm sick of eating my "monsters" and not marshmallows...

Hmmm... you might not be heating the sugar to a high enough temperature if it's staying liquid as it begins to cool. (Or the water in the sugar hasn't cooked out.) Try starting with a reduced amount of water in the syrup and sugar mixture - just enough to wet the sugar a little to help the melting process.

Also, check the labels on all your ingredients to make sure that they don't contain some other unpredictable substances that might interfere with the marshmallow making process. Go ahead and post the ingredients of your components here and we'll see if we can figure this out...

The sugar and water mixture is used to make it easier to bring the sugar to an even melt. Afterward, we want to boil the water off and then heat the melted sugar until it has very low water content and has reached the hard ball stage (sounds like this is accomplished from the description in your first post). It is unnecessary (and generally discouraged) to stir the sugar while heating. It is said that this may cause seed crystals to form giving the final sugar a granulated texture. I haven't tested this theory, so I'm not sure if it is simply a kitchen myth or there is truth in it. In any case, I didn't stir my sugar while it was heating.

When mixing the sugar into the gelatin, I did it slowly in a steady stream while the mixer was running. Then after all of it was in the bowl, I cranked up the mixer to the highest speed I could without splattering. As it thickened up, I turned the mixer to the fastest possible setting. What speed were you running your mixer on?

From your pictures, it seems like the bottom (gelatin) layer is solid... is this the case or is it all liquid and gooey (the impression I got from your first post)?

...It is unnecessary (and generally discouraged) to stir the sugar while heating. It is said that this may cause seed crystals to form giving the final sugar a granulated texture. I haven't tested this theory, so I'm not sure if it is simply a kitchen myth or there is truth in it. In any case, I didn't stir my sugar while it was heating.

But while heating, i have to stir the sugar from sides and from bottom, otherwise it starts burning, even with the fire low; it is also forming bubbles...

Quote:

When mixing the sugar into the gelatin, I did it slowly in a steady stream while the mixer was running... What speed were you running your mixer on?

I'm using handheld electric mixer, it hash sort of 2 small plastic "end" which forms 2 "U" when inserted. The speed is... ehm... fast (!?) you can easily "snow" and egg with this, so it should be al right; do i need an absolutely fast o slow machine ?

Also, "when" is your mix go like white snow ? while stirring, immediately after mixing the first part of sugar+syrup or in the end ?

And how is the consistence of the boiled mixture (before mixing with gelatin)? tick, liquid ? mine is more though than corn syrup, but less than honey...

Quote:

From your pictures, it seems like the bottom (gelatin) layer is solid... is this the case or is it all liquid and gooey (the impression I got from your first post)?

Gelatin is really solid, no water is left; BUT while mixing (gelatine+boiled sugar) i can see clearly that sometime, in some side of the bowl there is some liquid parts that the mixer is "sort of" separating from the more dense mixture...

I found why i got granulated sugar in the final pan: it was the powdered sugar i put before...

In the end... i will try to put less water in the boiled mixture, i'll boil more and i will mix it with a powerfull mixer. Last question: won't it be cool too soon if i pour it slowly in the mixer with the gelatin?

Water + gelatin all right;
Water+sugar+syrup: this time i put less water, i weighted 30gr of water (rather than using more or less 30ml from graduated scale) and let it on the fire for 10 minutes at very low fire, low but enought to boil.

Then happened what i worried before: when i took the hot mixture and mix it slowly with the gelatin while in the mixer... the first part of the hot mixute just solidified almost immediately in the pan ! it stuck the mixer, i big stone of solid sugar was spinning from side to side... arrgghhh ! i immediately added the remaining hot mixture, took a spon and hit that "mass", i was near declaring surrender, while suddenly the mass stuck on the bottom, so with the handheld mixer i started abrating it.... and it started fluffing !

Well... the final result is a homogenous white ultra dense ultra sticky "stuff", the taste is near caramel... but the sugar was not brown... uhmmm

It's soft, but not fluffed at all, the taste is somewhere good, when i added salt and vanilla it was already the consistence of mastic ! incredibile hard to mix !

For the next try i will do 2 adjustement:

_ Cook the sugar for 7 minutes
_ Use the cooking pan to mix, i will put in little by little the gelatin and mix in the HOT pan, so i won't have anymore trouble with solidification...

I did it another time: half recipe, boiled sugar for 7 minutes then turned off the fire, powered the mixer IN the boiling pan and slowly putted the gelatin in the mixture.

G R E A T !

As i was pouring gelatin the mixture got tight ! after 5 minutes the mass was soft, white, dry and tripled volume !

After cooling i cutted and wrapped all the small cubes with powdere sugar.

They taste "soft", they melt in the mouth, they are great !

Next time i will try to find some flavour, cherry, chocolate, or other

There is only one drawnback... living in Italy it difficult to found Corn Syrup and Know Gelatin, or at least a replacement (the gelatin i found is not behaving like knox). Is there someone who travel (well ,who knows ingredients here and there) and does know what to use "here"? Having components shipped overseas... adds 24$ as shipping to the total costs... quite expensive as recipe

In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla and incorporate into mixture. Scrape into a 9 x 9-inch pan lined with oiled plastic wrap and spread evenly. (Note: Lightly oil hands and spatula or bowl scraper). After pouring marshmallow mixture into the pan, take another piece of plastic wrap and press mixture into the pan.

Let mixture sit for a few hours. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners' sugar and cut into 12-20 equal pieces with scissors (the best tool for the job) or a chef's knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in confectioners' sugar.

This is a fool proof recipe. The trick is to have a strong enough mixer to do the beating. The sugar syrup temperature should be 340 F. Use corn syrup or glucose with the sugar, the reason for the two sugars is to prevent crystallization. You shouldn't have to do much stirring, but stirring shouldn't affect anything.

This recipe goes well into a greased 9" x 9" or 8" x 8" pan

Also, for cutting the marshmallow pieces, I have found that wetting the hands and the cutting blade reallly helps keep things from sticking.

One packet of Knox gelatin is 1.8 grams of gelatin so three packets would be 5.4 grams of gelatin.

I've been making these morsels for several years now. Honestly, the hardest part is not eating them all before guests arrive.

A couple critical tips -
1. do not boil past 340 degrees, or the marshmallows will be too chewy.
2. make sure you bloom the gelatin before using, knox is OK, but inquire at your local bakery for commercial gelatin for even better results.
3. I've always coated my pans with corn starch which seems to protect the 'mallows better in humid climates, rather than powdered sugar. I coat the bottom of the pan, no oil/butter/grease, and coat the top liberally, then coat the cutting board as well when cutting them up.
4. I've always had great results blooming the gelatin in my kitchenaid mixing bowl and then adding the corn syrup misture to the gelatin and letting the mixer run on medium spead for 7-8 minutes BEFORE adding the vanilla or flavoring of choice.